Kate was sitting at her desk the next morning looking through files about Ontiretse Setle when the phone rang. “Hello Detective Gomolemo,” she said to the phone.

“Hi Mom,” Gomolemo said on the other side. “How are things?”

“Fine, is everything okay?” Her son never called her at work, unless it was an emergency.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I was just checking on you. I saw on TV last night that another girl was raped and murdered. What’s going on?”

“It’s awful I know. The worst part is we don’t even have any suspects. Anyway, I can’t really talk about it right now.” She knew her son hadn’t called to talk about a case, there was something else. “How’s Rachel?”

“She’s fine.” Kate could hear that the words were not giving a true picture of her son’s thoughts.

“Is the baby okay?”

“Yeah the doctor says the pregnancy’s on track. You know, Mom, it’s just Rachel. She’s so unhappy at the hospital. I think it’s not the job for her. She really struggles when one of her patients dies and it happens so often. AIDS is still wrecking havoc despite the free ARV’s. People just don’t stick to their meds, others refuse to be tested. Rachel becomes really affected when they die.”

“Why doesn’t she take a break now that she’s pregnant? “

“That’s exactly what I told her. I told her to quit, then she can stay at home with the baby when it’s born and find a new job, maybe outside government later when the baby’s older.”

“So what did she say?”

“She thinks I’m trying to get her to quit being a doctor, but that’s not it. I don’t mind if she works, it’s just maybe this work is not so great for her. She needs something different. It’s killing her, killing her spirit.”

“I think I see where this is heading. You want me to speak to her.”

“Would you, Mom? That would be so helpful.”

“I don’t think your wife is going to appreciate her mother-in-law sticking her nose in your business. Let me see if I can ask a few people, see if there are any posts that she might be better suited for. Why don’t you two join us tonight? We’re meeting some friends for a poetry reading and then we’re going out to dinner afterwards. ”

“Okay, I think we’re free. Please Mom, try and see what you can do. I hate seeing her so sad everyday.” Kate knew her son was worried and only wanted the best for his wife, but she knew too, Rachel was a strong woman who would need to make decisions on her own. Any other way and she would think they were trying to control her and that wouldn’t go down well. Kate knew exactly how Rachel would respond because she would respond the same way.

Kate hung up the phone. She knew a pregnant woman being under that kind of stress was not good. She’d have to do something. But for now she needed to put her son’s problem out of her mind and focus on the case.

From the files, Ontiretse Setle had been a busy boy. He had a string of cases going back to when he was just a kid. At 12, he and some friends burned down a neighbour’s mud hut injuring a small child who got second degree burns on most of her body. They were sent to social workers since they were too young to go to prison. At fourteen, he was arrested with stolen clothing taken from a shop on the Main Mall. Again, the case was dropped because he was too young. He had some fighting and disorderly conduct cases which were settled at the kgotla. At 17, while a student at Gaborone Secondary School he beat a female teacher and was expelled. The teacher spent two months in hospital and soon after her release left the teaching service. His father, the owner of one of the biggest transport businesses in the country, Setle Express, managed to get him enrolled in the private Northwood High School, where he finished his form five with less than sterling results, but money again appeared to get him a place at UB.

Now an adult, he slipped up yet again and was charged with the rape of a fellow student. Kate was reminded of the case as she read the file. The father paid off the victim and the case fell apart. The police working on the case were furious. The young woman spent only one more term at the university and then took her own life, found dead in her dorm from an overdose. She paid a terrible price for taking the cash and not seeking justice in the court. Did that mistake cost the lives of two other young women too? Kate wondered. If Ontiretse had gone to jail for that rape would Olebile and Keletso still be alive?

This Ontiretse Setle was an evil piece of work, Kate thought. With a rich father who knew where to place his money to keep his son out of trouble, Kate would have to tread very carefully.

“Koko!” Ntoko said at the door.

Kate looked up. “So how did it go yesterday at the university?”

“I interviewed a lot of people, students and staff. Everyone knew about Keletso’s murder but it was still early, they hadn’t heard about Olebile yet.”

“Did you get anything interesting?”

“As we expected, a lot of the girls mentioned Kadambo. I think Mrs. Basupi is correct in assuming there is a bit of an urban legend about him. I just get the impression they don’t like the way he looks and the stories stem from that. No one could give me specific instances where he’d harmed someone. One thing I did pick up is that people are scared and many are becoming angry. You know university kids; it doesn’t take much to get them going. We need to really keep an eye on the campus. Especially with this new murder. I didn’t get anything very concrete, though. What about you?”

Kate pushed Ontiretse’s file towards Ntoko. “Take a look at this. Olebile filed a harassment complaint against this boy when she was at UB and Keletso had mentioned to Margaret that he was interested in her too. That’s a connection and, on top of it, he’s been in a running battle with the police since he was barely out of short pants.”

Ntoko sat down and paged through the file. “Mr. Setle, I know him.”

“You know this boy?”

“No, I know the father. We were at school together. He was always a tough guy too. Full of nonsense. Appalling manners. The seed doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“I think we should try to find him. From what I gather from the file, he’s left the university, or was asked to leave. Do you happen to know where the family stays?”

“Sure, everybody knows. It’s the biggest mansion in Phakalane. Ray Setle was always a show-off. He makes sure everybody knows that he has a big house in the most exclusive neighbourhood in Gaborone. You can have money, but if you have no respect for others, no concept of botho, I see no reason that you should be respected. No reason at all,” Ntoko said with a look of distaste on his face.